Built in London. Now helping businesses across North Texas.
The way I work today was shaped long before Kayvan Consulting existed.
For nearly two decades, I wasn’t advising businesses from the outside. I was building businesses from the inside.
Every framework I use, every workshop I facilitate, and every conversation I have with a founder is rooted in the realities of growing a business, making difficult decisions, hiring great people, getting hiring wrong, building teams, restructuring departments, navigating uncertainty, and learning what it really takes to scale an organisation.
Today, I help founders and leadership teams make better hires, clearer decisions, and get more from their teams. Those challenges may look different from one business to the next, but underneath, they usually come back to the same things:
Leadership. Clarity. Communication. Accountability. People.
From composer to company builder
I studied Music at the University of Leeds and began my career as a composer.
In 2003, I co-founded SNK Studios, a small music production company in London. Like many founder stories, it started with a simple idea, limited resources, and a determination to figure things out along the way.
Over the next seventeen years, that business grew far beyond what either of us imagined.
What began as a music production studio evolved into a group of specialist businesses covering audio production, audio post-production, voice recording, audiobook production, sound design, music publishing, creative services, and digital.
As the business expanded, so did the opportunities. We merged with Red Apple Creative, opened an office in New York, built twelve recording studios, and grew the team to almost sixty people across two continents
Along the way, we had the privilege of working with clients including Spotify, Netflix, Audible, leading advertising agencies, publishers, broadcasters, and brands around the world.
Following my exit in 2020, the business went on to rebrand as Forever Audio.
Building a business teaches you things that no textbook can
People often ask where my frameworks come from, and the answer is simple:
They were built because I needed them.
Running a growing business meant learning every part of leadership and operations, often through trial and error.
- Hiring
- Forecasting & budgeting
- Building leadership teams
- Managing cash flow
- Restructuring departments
- Improving communication
- Clarifying responsibilities
- Planning growth
- Winning clients
- Making difficult decisions with incomplete information
- Taking calculated risks
Some lessons came from success. Many came from making mistakes.
Every growing business eventually reaches a point where yesterday’s way of working no longer supports tomorrow’s ambitions. Founders become bottlenecks. Communication becomes more complicated. Teams need greater clarity. Accountability becomes less obvious. The business demands a different kind of leadership.
I’ve lived through those moments, and they shaped how I think about businesses today.
Turning experience into practical frameworks
After leaving the business in 2020, I was asked by a friend to help with a handful of operational and leadership challenges inside their company.
What surprised me was that the things I considered normal were incredibly valuable to other businesses.
- The way I recruited people.
- The way I ran meetings.
- The way I structured teams.
- The way I made decisions.
- The way I planned growth.
None of these had ever been designed as consulting products. They had simply evolved over years because they solved real problems inside a growing organization.
Working with more founders revealed the same pattern again and again.
- Different industries.
- Different products.
- Different markets.
- Remarkably similar leadership challenges.
That became the foundation of Kayvan Consulting.
Today, I work with founders and leadership teams to improve hiring, strengthen leadership, facilitate strategy workshops, redesign organizational structures, and build teams that can continue growing without losing alignment.
Looking back changed my perspective
Exiting a business gives you something that’s difficult to find while you’re still running one.
Distance.
For the first time in years, I could step back and reflect on the decisions we had made, the culture we had built, and the leader I had become.
While I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved, I could also see opportunities where I would lead differently today. Things I wish had done better. Areas I wanted to study.
That reflection sparked a deep interest in collaboration.
- Why do some leadership teams consistently make better decisions?
- Why do some meetings create momentum while others become routine?
- Why do some organizations unlock the experience and ideas already sitting inside the room while others rely on the loudest voice?
Those questions led me to study facilitation in depth and qualify as a Master Workshop Facilitator.
Today, workshop facilitation is one of the most rewarding parts of my work because it combines practical business experience with structured methods that help teams think more clearly, solve problems together, and leave the room with real ownership and meaningful progress.
London to DFW: Finding a new community
In 2022, my wife and I relocated from London to Dallas, Texas, her hometown, together with our first son. Not long afterwards, our second son was born here, and North Texas quickly became home.
Relocating also meant building the next chapter of my Kayvan Consulting.
While continuing to support a number of long-standing UK clients remotely, I began building relationships throughout the Dallas and Fort Worth business community.
It didn’t take long before I found myself surrounded by people who were generous with their time, welcoming, and genuinely invested in helping others succeed. I wanted to contribute in the same way, so I quickly became involved in the local business community:
- Chaired the Small Business Community Committee at the Richardson Chamber of Commerce for three years
- Mentored entrepreneurs through programs with the United Way of Dallas Social Innovation Accelerator and the Capital One Mobility Accelerator.
- Recipient of the 2024 Richardson Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year Award
- Currently serve on the Methodist Richardson Medical Center Foundation Board.
- Currently volunteering and mentoring through Leadership Richardson.
Today, the majority of my work is with founders and leadership teams across North Texas, while also supporting clients elsewhere in the United States and internationally.
